“Women received their dead, raised to life again. Other people were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Others experienced mockings and scourgings, as well as bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and on mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us.” Hebrews‬ ‭11:35-40‬ ‭CSB‬‬

The author in the letter is reminding us of the terrible and unimaginable things that people had to endure for being Christian. The closing testimonies of the faith in action that leads to someone being approved by God are not testimonies anyone would choose to have but testimonies that glorify God. They glorify God because they prove the statement of the Holy Spirit coming to dwell and comfort people purchased by the Blood of Jesus. For so many people to have forsaken the world’s comforts (due to being cast out of their communities due to accepting Jesus as the Messiah) and to have stepped into being tortured unto death because they would not forsake their faith in Jesus shows the reality of the Gospel. These were not people who were born into Christianity. No, they were all people who heard about Jesus, and they freely chose to follow in His ways.

The people mentioned in the scripture all went to their death in faith that on the final day of judgement would come and they would hear from Jesus, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”. They were people who knew God intimately, and because of their relationship with Him, they could endure unimaginable pains. The question for you today is, what can you survive with God for His glory? Would your relationship with God be able to carry you in faith to being rejected by society, wandering along, living in the wild or being tortured and mistreated? Or does your relationship with God and your trust stand only if you are in comfort and receiving blessings?

If the saints, the first Christians, had to endure against the world, what makes you think that now we get to live in the world? Sadly for most Christians, their faith is based on the comforts of the world, which is not the faith that approves them before God. This form of Christianity that most follow, which leads them to a life of comfort and abundance, is not the Gospel of Christ and not the walk of faith which shows a belief in judgment and, therefore, eternal reward or eternal punishment.

Those people endured severe consequences because the Lord is waiting for His banquet hall to be complete, and all of His children still have not come back to Him. It is a humbling thought to close on. Sit on the knowledge that the faithful saints of old lived hard lives and died in horrific ways so that you too may have the option of being purified and sanctified by Jesus and therefore being accepted before God.

Today choose God and reject the world.